Jaya

In this enthralling retelling of India’s greatest epic, Devdutt Pattanaik seamlessly weaves into a single narrative plots from the Sanskrit classic as well as its many folk and regional variants....

A Must Read For Everyone

By
Gene
on
05-08-12

Autobiography of a Yogi

By:
Paramahansa Yogananda

Narrated by:
Ben Kingsley

Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins

Unabridged

Overall

2,715

Performance

2,029

Story

2,019

When Autobiography of a Yogi first appeared in 1946, it was acclaimed as a landmark work in its field....

Inspirational

By
Scott Mueller
on
11-18-04

The Essence of Self-Realization

The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

By:
Swami Kriyananda

Narrated by:
Swami Kriyananda

Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins

Unabridged

Overall

132

Performance

90

Story

89

The scope of this book is vast - it offers as complete an explanation of life's true purpose, and the way to achieve that purpose, as may be found anywhere....

A worthy effort

By
Carpe Diem
on
03-22-08

Tao Te Ching

A New English Version

By:
Lao Tzu,
Stephen Mitchell

Narrated by:
Stephen Mitchell

Length: 1 hr and 43 mins

Unabridged

Overall

1,747

Performance

1,476

Story

1,467

In 81 brief chapters, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, provides advice that imparts balance and perspective, as well as a serene and generous spirit....

Please remove the ridiculous ad at the end

By
Michael
on
02-20-15

Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction

By:
Kim Knott

Narrated by:
Susan McIneary

Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins

Unabridged

Overall

30

Performance

24

Story

24

Hinduism is practiced by about eighty percent of India's population, and by about 30 million people outside India....

Excellent Introduction to Hinduism

By
Stephen
on
10-26-17

Publisher's Summary

Hinduism is a very broad term for the religious practices and doctrines of the Indian people. This tradition is believed to have begun in about 1800 BCE with religious poems known as the Vedas. Hinduism is best known in the west through the doctrines of Advaita, the belief that there is only one ultimate reality. Advaitans, however, worshipped a range of icons that represented the separate manifestations of the ultimate Brahman. After the decline of Vedic religion, bhakti devotional cults arose and have remained a predominant form of Hindu worship up through the modern era.

The Religion, Scriptures, and Spirituality series describes the beliefs, religious practices, and the spiritual and moral commitments of the world's great religious traditions. It also describes a religion's way of understanding scripture and discusses its relationship to society.

Performance

Story

Hindusim 101

If you are interested at all Hinduism and ever wanted a better understanding, this is a great place to start.

I teach a Grade 11 World Religions course at my school and wanted to listen to a 'backgrounder' on Hinduism to help in my preparation. This book did the job beautifully--in fact, my only criticism is that is should have been longer.

The narrator, actor Ben Kingsley (who played the title role in 'Gandhi'), does a great job in reading this book with dignity and the gravitas a subject like this deserves. Throughout the book there are other accented voices who read excerpts from the Bhagavad-Gita (in an Indian accent) and commentary on Indian culture from English books (read in a British accent). This helps to break up the flow and is non-offensive.

Because Hinduism is so inextricably woven into the fabric of Indian culture, the book spends a great deal of time speaking of both religion and culture. In fact, if you are planning to travel to India, or you have an interest in India generally, you will find this audiobook very helpful to read. I have travelled to India on several occasions and this book accurately reflects both the culture and spirituality of modern India.

Contains scholarly inaccuracies

Almost started enjoying this book until read some information which is patently false and would be considered offensive by many faithful Hindus, although Westerners, except for ISKON converts, would not easily notice them. The most glaring falsehood that this work propagates are as follows:describes Krishna's supposed 'love affair' with Radha (who allegedly married to somebody else)as a story which is canonical and part of Hindu belief. He further alleges that Gopis who danced with Krishna were married and had a "love affair" with him. The attempt is to portray the holiest figure of Hindus as a fornicator. This is the most glaring scholarly gaffe from this author and reveals serious shortcomings in his claim as a scholar of Hinduism.A brief examination, undertaken with sincere intent, would have revealed to him that Radha is a completely fictional character invented by poet Jayadeva around 12th century CE and that none of any canonical accounts of Krishna in Puranas and Mahabharata have any mention of Radha. With regard to supposed affair of Krishna with married Gopis, the author again shows callous disregard or ignorance of the Hindu, scriptures. According to Bhagavatham, whence this story comes, Krisnha was merely a boy of eight when he played pranks on Gopis. Out of hundreds of pages dedicated to Krishna, the episode describing the childhood pranks of Krishna with Gopis barely lasts a page. The rest of the scripture describes his miracles, statesmanship and military exploits in great detail.The author obviously ignored the canonical texts of Hinduism and built a narrative of Krishna as a playboy based on non-canonical stories which are popular only in a heretical fringe of Hindu society.Other glaring mistakes: failure to designate left-hand tantric practices as ostracized by lay Hindus,Sikh scripture not using Hindu names for God & containing Mira's verses,South Indian kings being Shudras,etc.

it should be called "squabbles around Hinduism"

if you wish to stay pure and connect to the spirit, i would recommend to avoid this book. it is not giving you the hinduism but endless fights between people within and around it. but i did trully enjoy the narration, especially the parts narrated by hindus. the indian voices and passion in them are very inspirational.